According to SDxCentral reader metrics, it’s clear that enterprise and service provider interest in SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) has never been higher.

As evidence of that interest, SDxCentral has experienced 25% growth in SD-WAN and SASE-related topics. That includes growth in quarterly page views, and over 10,000 event registrations, webinars attended and PDFs downloaded from the site.

The SDxCentral data reveals a fundamental shift in how our readers view SD-WAN. Traditional networking-centric SD-WAN is no longer good enough due to increasing security threats that are driving demand for secure SD-WAN or SASE offerings where security is baked in from the design phase. We’re seeing a fundamental shift in reader engagement away from traditional SD-WAN leaders to secure SD-WAN and single-vendor SASE providers.

The most popular SD-WAN and SASE articles on SDxCentral are definitional pieces, such as What is SD-WAN? and What is SASE? These articles are typically read by people starting their journey to research SD-WAN or SASE technologies. Next in popularity are analysis and feature types of articles, which are often read by people starting to evaluate a narrowed-down list of SD-WAN or SASE technologies. Examples include 5 reasons why MPLS isn’t dead yet – and won’t be anytime soon and SD-WAN tips from the trenches. Finally, our news and analysis stories about specific vendors and their solutions, products and partnerships are popular with readers looking to perform vendor research or in the adoption or implementation phase.

One noteworthy finding was meaningful growth in definition page views from geographies that are traditionally later adopters of technology, which demonstrates the maturity of the SD-WAN market.  We saw similar engagement in SDN and NFV as they were nearing the peak of their adoption curves.

To identify which vendors are gaining the most attention from SDxCentral readers in 2023, we looked at page views for our news, analysis, features, opinion and interview articles tagged with the topics SD-WAN (or SD-WAN networking) or SASE. We then adjusted the data by the amount of coverage for any specific vendor to capture the most-read articles by company name. We then looked at views of definitions, glossary listings, vendor research and company directory pages to identify which vendors are most researched by readers on SDxCentral to come up with the following rankings.

Note that the bottom three vendors have similar engagement scores that tend to ebb and flow based on product announcements, partnerships and events.

1. Cisco is No. 1, but it’s important to note that the top engagement driver for Cisco on SDxCentral was an article about an SD-WAN product outage. If we excluded that article, they would not have ranked first.
2. Vendors perceived as traditional SD-WAN vendors saw drops in overall audience engagement. For example, HPE Aruba Networking had the biggest drop in reader engagement, followed by Juniper Networks and VMware.
3. Surging engagement by Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Cato, Versa and Check Point highlights the importance of credible single-vendor secure SD-WAN and SASE offerings.
4. Although they didn’t make the top 10, companies including Zscaler, Cloudflare and newcomer Graphiant have experienced a measurable increase in engagement this year.

1. Readers are shifting from SD-WAN to secure SD-WAN or SASE to protect their business. This is evidenced by  the growth of engagement in security-centric vendors like Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cato, Versa and Check Point.
2. As the SD-WAN and SASE markets mature, we are seeing engagement growth from readers in geographic regions (Oceania, Southern Europe) and specific countries (Brazil, Indonesia) that tend to adopt technology later in the tech adoption curve.
3. Readers are spending more time researching single-vendor secure SD-WAN and SASE solutions over traditional SD-WAN solutions. Traditional SD-WAN market leaders, like Cisco, VMware and HPE Aruba, are increasingly receiving fewer page views and other engagements from readers.

Our readership metrics show a shift in engagement away from traditional SD-WAN leaders to secure SD-WAN and SASE providers, which reflects an overall market shift. However, as with any new and upcoming technology, we suggest that SD-WAN and SASE buyers look beyond the hype when doing their research. Don’t discount traditional vendors. Instead, we suggest looking at a vendor’s overall product offering, how well they work with other vendors’ products and whether their service offerings are in line with your company’s needs.